We would like to thank you for your reply to our letter, which, while holding no surprises, is nevertheless received with regret.

With the sampling we proposed, we were taking the opportunity to publicly demonstrate that the emissions at your refinery are within permissible levels if indeed our testing results were to agree with your own data.

Your refusal to give us this opportunity signals that all may not be well with emission levels and that this open door exercise is no more than PR for the CEPSA company machinery when you consider that it is precisely emission levels from your plant which most worries the Spanish and Gibraltar communities.

Regarding air quality data we understand that of the 16 units measuring ambient air: 6 of these belong to your industry[1], another 7 to related industry, and only 3 belong to the Consejeria de Medio Ambiente. We think it’s in the public’s interest to know this. With regards to real-time data from stack emissions you refer to in your letter, we consider that this is still not addressing the fugitive emissions associated with leaks and poorly maintained equipment.

To summarise we do not believe that all has been done to keep pollution levels to a minimum (as we have shown in the past with our bucket samples), neither are you in a position to convince the bay communities that this is indeed the current situation, or that the refinery poses no threat to the health of the citizens of this region, including your workforce itself.

The ESG would like to request a meeting with CEPSA’s top management to discuss the differences in approach and to present our concerns directly. Following this we remain in hope that you will at some point in the near future consider the air quality within your grounds to be good enough to allow us to take our own samples.

Once again, and due to the public interest in this issue we are making public our response.